Trump Administration Says NK Responsible for Huge Ransomware Attack

The Trump administration says North Korea is to blame for a ransomware attack that affected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide in May.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert said Pyongyang was "directly responsible" for the WannaCry ransomware attack. 

Wannacry took hostage documents, databases, and files on computers in more than 150 nations. Most notably, it disabled parts of Britain's National Health Service.
 
Bossert said the evidence was confirmed by governments and private companies, including the United Kingdom and Microsoft. He said the rogue nation will be held accountable for the attack.

"North Korea has acted especially badly, largely unchecked, for more than a decade, and its malicious behavior is growing more egregious. WannaCry was indiscriminately reckless," he wrote in the op-ed. 

The WannaCry ransomware took advantage of a vulnerability in mostly older versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Computers that were affected had not been updated with security patches that would have blocked the attack.

The WannaCry attack came to a halt when Marcus Hutchins, a British hacker, found a "kill switch" in the code. He was able to trip the switch and the attack ended.  However, some months later, Hutchins was arrested by the FBI while he was visiting the U.S.  He has pled not guilty and awaits trial, charged with creating other forms of malware. 

The United States and South Korea have accused North Korea of launching a series of cyber attacks in recent years. The North has dismissed the accusations.